{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth", "heading": "Quotes about birth", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth.md", "quotes_count": 24, "authors_count": 14, "parent": { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life", "heading": "Quotes about life" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "2aff9c21-fb95-40a3-8b26-2c8b7cd7240c", "slug": "most-births-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-outward-urge/most-births-are", "text": "\"Most births are painful, and none are pretty.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "The Outward Urge", "slug": "the-outward-urge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-outward-urge" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 50, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#The_Outward_Urge_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:05" }, { "id": "381edc1b-7720-4602-b391-a1c68baeb993", "slug": "why-is-it-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/puddnhead-wilson/why-is-it-that", "text": "Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mark Twain", "slug": "mark-twain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain" }, "book": { "title": "Pudd'nhead Wilson", "slug": "puddnhead-wilson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/puddnhead-wilson" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pudd'nhead_Wilson#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:19" }, { "id": "7c9c6fe8-ff6b-4751-969b-1410cce16913", "slug": "death-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/death-is-not", "text": "Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.(Ch 9)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "Stillness Speaks", "slug": "stillness-speaks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#Stillness_Speaks_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:00" }, { "id": "04f3cdff-8f84-4cf4-ac1d-10f498ef4c9f", "slug": "the-only-happy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/the-only-happy", "text": "The only happy people she saw coming out of the place were a young couple, the man carrying a crying baby. Maternity wards are different, Nellie thought as she went past them. I bet they’re the only place in a hospital where people win instead of losing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 392, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hope", "slug": "hope", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Center_Cannot_Hold_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:51" }, { "id": "3592ebe5-33a4-4a8d-b008-3116f91c9a7f", "slug": "if-only-i-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/tristessa/if-only-i-had", "text": "If only I had the magic self of babyhood when I remembered what it was like before I was born, I wouldn't worry about death now knowing both to be the same empty dream.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Kerouac", "slug": "jack-kerouac", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac" }, "book": { "title": "Tristessa", "slug": "tristessa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-kerouac/tristessa" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac#Tristessa_(1960)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:33" }, { "id": "3cfb73c2-7b95-4550-9806-7b13f56894ac", "slug": "as-long-as-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune/as-long-as-there", "text": "As long as there is life, every ending is a beginning. And I would save humankind, even from itself. This is why no death in the perpetuation of humankind can be a complete failure. This is why a birth touches us so deeply. This is why the most tragic death is the death of a youth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "God Emperor of Dune", "slug": "god-emperor-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/god-emperor-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#God_Emperor_of_Dune_(1981)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:54" }, { "id": "70104f9b-76da-45ad-a890-37cd78c9bdbc", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/norse-mythology/it-is-not", "text": "It is not the end. There is no end. It is simply the end of the old times, Loki, and the beginning of the new times. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Norse Mythology", "slug": "norse-mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/norse-mythology" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 278, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Norse_Mythology_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:15" }, { "id": "d793f31b-5f0f-4b36-ab16-69143bd0fbe9", "slug": "to-be-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/erewhon/to-be-born", "text": "“To be born,” they say, “is a felony--it is a capital crime, for which sentence may be executed at any moment after the commission of the offence. You may perhaps happen to live for some seventy or eighty years, but what is that, compared with the eternity you now enjoy? And even though the sentence were commuted, and you were allowed to live on for ever, you would in time become so terribly weary of life that execution would be the greatest mercy to you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel Butler", "slug": "samuel-butler", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler" }, "book": { "title": "Erewhon", "slug": "erewhon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-butler/erewhon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" }, { "name": "eternity", "slug": "eternity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/eternity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Butler_(novelist)#Erewhon_(1872)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:53" }, { "id": "85440048-85ad-43d4-bf09-b702ee9a164b", "slug": "it-takes-two", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/as-i-lay-dying/it-takes-two", "text": "It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Faulkner", "slug": "william-faulkner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner" }, "book": { "title": "As I Lay Dying", "slug": "as-i-lay-dying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-faulkner/as-i-lay-dying" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" }, { "name": "the end of the world", "slug": "the-end-of-the-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-end-of-the-world" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner#As_I_Lay_Dying_(1930)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:44" }, { "id": "c40574eb-490b-4790-a37d-51eb2027dab2", "slug": "we-have-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/we-have-lost", "text": "We have lost, being born, as much as we shall lose, dying. Everything.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "pessimism", "slug": "pessimism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "6ab2564b-7217-425e-a441-662a8e7efa70", "slug": "nothing-is-a-better", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/nothing-is-a-better", "text": "Nothing is a better proof of how far humanity has regressed than the impossibility of finding a single nation, a single tribe, among whom birth still provokes mourning and lamentations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pessimism", "slug": "pessimism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "3052cf68-7d72-441f-b3e3-6225b98d1b57", "slug": "not-to-be-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/not-to-be-born", "text": "Not to be born is undoubtedly the best plan of all. Unfortunately, it is within no one's reach.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" }, { "name": "dark humor", "slug": "dark-humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dark-humor" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "022be594-82f4-4577-9258-b5f7283be74b", "slug": "we-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/we-do-not", "text": "We do not rush toward death, we flee the catastrophe of birth, survivors struggling to forget it. Fear of death is merely the projection into the future of a fear which dates back to our first moment of life. We are reluctant, of course, to treat birth as a scourge: has it not been inculcated as the sovereign good — have we not been told that the worst came at the end, not at the outset of our lives? Yet evil, the real evil, is behind, not ahead of us. What escaped Jesus did not escape Buddha: \"If three things did not exist in the world, O disciples, the Perfect One would not appear in the world. …\" And ahead of old age and death he places the fact of birth, source of every infirmity, every disaster.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "Buddhism", "slug": "buddhism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/buddhism" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" }, { "name": "fear of death", "slug": "fear-of-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear-of-death" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:42" }, { "id": "f9e99c05-caeb-4a34-8e99-d1951fea36c5", "slug": "i-used-to-ask", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-used-to-ask", "text": "I used to ask myself, over a coffin: “What good did it do the occupant to be born?,” I now put the same question about anyone alive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "meaning of life", "slug": "meaning-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "e0688afe-9fe5-4c3b-827a-cdb4d49d0a51", "slug": "three-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/three-in-the", "text": "Three in the morning. I realize this second, then this one, then the next: I draw up the balance sheet for each minute. And why all this? Because I was born. It is a special type of sleeplessness that produces the indictment of birth.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "ae159ad2-8e7c-41da-9657-9cf67e36e331", "slug": "there-was-a-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/there-was-a-time", "text": "There was a time when time did not yet exist. ... The rejection of birth is nothing but the nostalgia for this time before time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "nostalgia", "slug": "nostalgia", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nostalgia" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "5f0d6dc5-52d1-4626-8fda-f975c0451a43", "slug": "in-the-fact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/in-the-fact", "text": "In the fact of being born there is such an absence of necessity that when you think about it a little more than usual, you are left—ignorant how to react—with a foolish grin", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" }, { "name": "absurdity", "slug": "absurdity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/absurdity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "45aa323d-193c-49c7-90ff-cb72e3c5ed8f", "slug": "the-real-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/the-real-the", "text": "The real, the unique misfortune: to see the light of day. A disaster which dates back to aggressiveness, to the seed of expansion and rage within origins, to the tendency to the worst which first shook them up.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pessimism", "slug": "pessimism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "28a6d918-36cc-45d8-b08c-c9b440067d25", "slug": "i-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-do-not", "text": "I do not forgive myself for being born. It is as if, creeping into this world, I had profaned a mystery, betrayed some momentous pledge, committed a fault of nameless gravity. Yet in a less assured mood, birth seems a calamity I would be miserable not having known.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "guilt", "slug": "guilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/guilt" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "1e51b4cf-bf4f-4650-94d3-b51e00eef6e8", "slug": "i-know-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-know-that", "text": "I know that my birth is fortuitous, a laughable accident, and yet, as soon as I forget myself, I behave as if it were a capital event, indispensable to the progress and equilibrium of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "ego", "slug": "ego", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ego" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "61e35e10-07c3-41c6-8f48-be54f09f4862", "slug": "from-the-blood", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-farjeon/the-new-book-of-days/from-the-blood", "text": "From the blood of Medusa Pegasus sprang. His hoof of heaven Like melody rang.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eleanor Farjeon", "slug": "eleanor-farjeon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-farjeon" }, "book": { "title": "The New Book of Days", "slug": "the-new-book-of-days", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eleanor-farjeon/the-new-book-of-days" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 181, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Farjeon#The_New_Book_of_Days_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:36" }, { "id": "85a3d997-ef18-4c74-b088-2ce2ea956358", "slug": "this-is-indeed", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/this-is-indeed", "text": "This is, indeed, the sublime and special romance of the family. It is romantic because it is a toss-up. It is romantic because it is everything that its enemies call it. It is romantic because it is arbitrary. It is romantic because it is there. So long as you have groups of men chosen rationally, you have some special or sectarian atmosphere. It is when you have groups of men chosen irrationally that you have men. The element of adventure begins to exist; for an adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose. Falling in love has been often regarded as the supreme adventure, the supreme romantic accident. In so much as there is in it something outside ourselves, something of a sort of merry fatalism, this is very true. Love does take us and transfigure and torture us. It does break our hearts with an unbearable beauty, like the unbearable beauty of music. But in so far as we have certainly something to do with the matter; in so far as we are in some sense prepared to fall in love and in some sense jump into it; in so far as we do to some extent choose and to some extent even judge—in all this falling in love is not truly romantic, is not truly adventurous at all. In this degree the supreme adventure is not falling in love. The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap. There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us, like brigands from a bush. Our uncle is a surprise. Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Heretics", "slug": "heretics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_XIV:_%22On_Certain_Modern_Writers_and_the_Institution_of_the_Family%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:34" }, { "id": "1746db41-f7dd-47cf-b8d3-79bfc2ea0db1", "slug": "it-is-as-painful", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/it-is-as-painful", "text": "It is as painful perhaps to be awakened from a vision as to be born.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "Ulysses", "slug": "ulysses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "disappointment", "slug": "disappointment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/disappointment" }, { "name": "dreams", "slug": "dreams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:33" }, { "id": "0b0abebf-558f-443c-b2b6-e2be7d93f223", "slug": "what-misery-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/germinal/what-misery-and", "text": "What misery! and all these girls, broken by fatigue, were silly enough to come here at night and make babies, more flesh to toil and suffer! It would never end while they went on getting themselves filled with starvelings. Ought they not rather to stop up their wombs and close their thighs tight against approaching disaster? But then, perhaps he was only harbouring these dismal thoughts because he resented being alone when all the others were pairing off to take their pleasure.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emile Zola", "slug": "emile-zola", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola" }, "book": { "title": "Germinal", "slug": "germinal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/germinal" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "suffering", "slug": "suffering", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola#Germinal_(1885)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:11" } ] }